Six-year sentence in $350,000 mortgage rescue fraud

A Chicago man has received a six-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to criminal mortgage rescue fraud.

Warren Jackson, 44, received the sentence in Cook County Circuit Court Thursday in connection with activities that caused losses of more than $350,000 to homeowners.

In one scheme, he promised to negotiate lower mortgage payments for homeowners at risk of foreclosure in exchange for upfront fees. Upfront fees for such services are generally illegal, and Jackson never followed through on his promises, according to the Illinois Attorney General's office.

In the other, he tricked distressed homeowners into entering sale-leaseback deals under which he promised to help them when he was, in fact, transferring title for the properties to straw buyers. The transactions stripped homeowners of $70,000 to $150,000 of their home equity.

The state previously obtained injunctions against Jackson for his illegal operation of a Chicago charity, We Stop the Killings, and for operating other mortgage-rescue operations the state said were fraudulent.